Chapter 686 Interrogation
Although he is a Lombard, Art does not know much about the history and culture of his "hometown" and the surrounding areas.
Now that we occupy more places, we have more and more things to manage. In order to better manage the territory under his name in the future, Art could only find time to acquire more knowledge during his busy military schedule to enrich his brain.
With the bright candlelight on the table, Art kept turning the pages of the book, uncovering bit by bit everything that had happened in this land——
I don’t know how long it had been. , a knock on the door suddenly interrupted Art's thoughts~
Matt rubbed his tired eyes and shouted to the door: "Come in!"
"Master~" Ron pushed the door open and entered.
“Ron, it’s so late, what do you want from me?” Art carefully closed the page and turned to look at Ron.
"Sir, good news! Mr. Mario of Lavati has personally brought the captured Lombard palace spies." Ron's tone was a little excited.
"Where are the people?"
"Brother Otto has sent someone to receive him and arranged for Mr. Mario and his party to find a place to stay. It's too late and everything will be decided by you tomorrow."
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"Well, this can be regarded as settling one of my worries. If these bastards continue to secretly cause trouble in Lavati, they may bring us big trouble one day." Art stood up and stretched, looking slightly tired.
"Ron, I'll leave this matter to you. I only have one request, take what I want to know out of the mouths of those idiots!"
After Ron closed the wooden door of the study, Art moved to the window and slowly opened the window with a slight crack. A bone-chilling wind instantly penetrated his thin clothes, making Art couldn't help but shiver. The charcoal in the brazier in the corner flickered in and out of light due to the sudden cold wind, and the layer of carbon ash covering the surface of the charcoal spread everywhere.
Hatta crossed his arms tightly, raised his head and glanced at the crescent moon hanging above his head, emitting cold moonlight, and couldn't help but sigh:
"It's so beautiful!"
Looking at the crescent moon, Art couldn't help but think of his wife Lottie and son George Wells who were far away in the valley.
Since he went south to fight, he has not contacted his wife at home for several days. Thinking of this, a feeling of guilt suddenly came to my heart.
In order to realize his ambition, Art missed every bit of his son's growth, failed his wife's ardent expectations, and lost too many days of reunion with his family.
Looking at the several mansions that were still lit with lights not far away, Art touched his sore nose and sighed: "It's so difficult to be a man!"
He then returned to the office desk, picked up the quill, dipped it in ink, and slowly started writing·
"Dear Lottie, my wife—
The next morning, as the church bells rang, Art got up early.
After a few sips of minced meat and wheat paste, along with a few pieces of fine wheat noodles, Art walked towards the Chinese army command camp under the escort of his bodyguards.
As soon as he entered the door, he ran into Secretary Bob who was about to go to the Radiation Department.
"Sir~"
"Hmm." Art stopped and hummed. Just as he was about to go to the military meeting hall, he suddenly remembered something and once again stopped the secretary who had already walked outside the door.
"Bob, wait a minute."
Bob bowed and asked, "What are your orders, sir?"
Matt took out the letter he had written to Lottie in the early morning from his waist and said, "Instruct someone to send this letter back to the valley and give it to Madam."
Matt handed over the letter, turned around, and walked quickly inside.
Bob, who received the letter, thought he had heard wrongly and stood there stunned for a moment. When he read the signature on the letter, he quickly put the letter away and walked out the door.
Since he followed Art as his secretary to the Central Army, Bob had never seen Art sending a message to the Countess. For a long time, Bob thought that Art was stingy with the carrier pigeon so as not to delay the delivery of military orders and documents. Today he realized that this was not the case.
As the commander-in-chief of the southern expedition, Art's mind was more focused on the confrontation with the Lombards, and he had little time to pay attention to the love affairs of his children.
When Art arrived at the military meeting hall, Stanley, the captain of the task force directly under the Chinese Army, and Oliver and Dawson, the deputy captains, were already waiting here. "Sir!"
The three of them stood up and saluted the moment Art entered the door.
"Everyone, please sit down." Art waved his hand to several people to sit down and talk. Then he walked towards the upper leather seat.
"In recent days, you have been out exploring the military situation, and have not been able to get repairs. I wanted to take advantage of your return from Soronborg to rest for a few days before assigning the task to you. However, the military situation is urgent, and I have to make a hard trip for you again~" Art's tone was both sympathetic to his subordinates and a little helpless.
"I am willing to serve you!" The three of them stood up together and said.
Matt nodded with satisfaction, and then said, "I asked Ron last night to ask you to come here early this morning, just for two things~"
The three of them were sitting upright.
"First, after taking Fort Sauron, the legion will continue to move south in the near future. In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, you must go south as soon as possible to find out the Lombard defenses in the forts and towns along the way. Stanley is responsible for this matter, with Oliver assisting."
"Yes, sir." The two stood up to accept the order.
"Dawson~" Art turned to look at the deputy captain Dawson,
"Sir!"
"You lead a group of people all the way south to various towns in Lombardy, secretly spreading the news that the Lombardy Principality was defeated in the north, and that the Duke of Lombardy was unable to resist our army going south and was about to abandon Milan and flee to Rome. Remember, we must use all means to cause chaos within Lombardy first, so that we can more easily break down their resistance."
"Yes, sir!" Dawson stood up and took the order.
"Remember, you must be more careful when going south this time. I don't need to say more about what to do if you are caught~" Art watched the three of them silently.
"Sir, please rest assured, we will definitely complete the task!" Stanley said firmly.
"Okay, without further ado, hurry up and set off!"
"Yes, sir!" The three of them took the order and slowly retreated towards the door.
Looking at the disappearing figures of several people, Art couldn't help but sigh.
"Master, what are you doing~" Ron asked in confusion.
"These guys have been following me for many years, going through life and death, and they have never said a word "no". Every time I send them to the enemy camp to spy on the enemy, I always feel a little guilty. ” Art said what was in his heart.
In those days, the task force went to Bernard's home province of Saône with Art, and captured alive the members of the assassin organization Assassin raised by the Dean family and sent them to the Paris Inquisition, revealing Bernard's conspiracy to collude with heretics and harm the palace knights.
In this operation, the task force gave full play to its strengths and successfully completed its mission.
Since then, the task force has played an important role many times on the road to Atep's ascension. Whether it is spying on the enemy or secretly sabotaging, the task force has never failed to live up to Art's expectations.
However, since most of the battlefields of the task force are behind enemy lines, they are often isolated and helpless. For this reason, the task force also lost many members during several missions. Although Art had never been stingy about providing pensions to the families of the deceased members of the task force, seeing his old family members leave made him feel guilty.
"Ron, you have followed me for so long, do you think I am sometimes too cruel, using the lives of my soldiers to build a platform for myself to rise to the top?"
"Sir, what's wrong with you today, why are you suddenly so emotional?" Ron used a somewhat sophisticated vocabulary.
Matt smiled slightly and stroked his forehead, "It seems that you learned something in the officer academy."
Ron felt a little embarrassed after hearing this. After all, this kind of polite vocabulary has nothing to do with me, a rough man who only knows how to fight on the battlefield.
"Master, actually you don't have to think like this at all. The reason why we guys have followed you through life and death is because you gave us things that others can't give us. In the past, I couldn't even imagine that I would become a real knight one day~
"You are right."
Hearing what Ron said, Art felt much better.
After a while, Art suddenly remembered the Lombard spies who were escorted over last night, and said to Ron: "Immediately take a few of the guards to interrogate the spies sent by the Lombard palace. I only give you half a day to pry out the information I want from them."
"Yes, sir!" Ron turned and ran out of the hall.
The sun has just risen in front of a row of low, oval-shaped houses surrounded by the city of Santia, not far from the free market. The soldiers guarding the Lombard prisoners held whips or wooden sticks in their hands and shouted at the prisoners in the cells.
For those Lombard prisoners, as long as they surrendered and swore an oath of service to the Earl of Wales, they would be spared from prison. The qualified Lombard prisoners were divided into different batches according to various standards such as physical fitness and combat prowess, and were added to the various companies of the legion.
Those die-hards were sent to prison. In addition to light soup and porridge to maintain basic physical strength every day, what awaited them was endless heavy labor and horse whips in the hands of the soldiers.
At the northeast corner of the cell, several prisoners who were detained there early this morning huddled in the cold and damp corner and shivered. Looking at the Burgundians holding swords and shouting loudly and the Lombard prisoners who were tortured into human shapes, these tough-talking guys were frightened.
After all the prisoners were taken away, these few Lombard spies were the only ones left in the empty cell.
After a moment, the cell door was slowly opened. An officer with a scar on his face and a few of his men walked straight towards the cell where a few people were.
"Open the door!" The scarred face said to the guard aggressively.
"Yes, Sir Ron."
When the guard opened the lock of the cell, Ron took a step forward and took a look at the Lombard spies who almost poisoned Art and others in Lavati. Helplessly, the stench inside made Ron feel nauseous, so he had to order his men to drag a few people out.
"Take them all out!" Ron ordered to the guards behind him.
"Yes!" Several people swarmed up and dragged these guys out by their heads like chickens.
"You two, go prepare dung water and linen cloth; you two, take them to the dungeon for me! The master said that I must pry open their mouths within half a day!"